Chafers and chaffing stands are used to hold pans, often with a heating device held below the pan. Catering establishments and restaurants often use such devices when keeping food warm at a location other than where the food was initially prepared. For example, chafers are used in places such as banquet halls and the like, where large amounts of food are constantly being directly served.
The chafers, usually in the form of rectangular metal receptacles, are of a normally standard dimensional size and are filled with food to be heated and/or served. Chafers are commonly supported upon transportable wire stands during both heating and serving, with each of the wire stands being hereinafter referred to as a “wire chafing stand” and usually being composed of steel. The wire chafing stand of the prior art, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513, issued to Robert Skvorecz, is a relatively simple structure having an upper rim and a lower rim formed of respective larger and smaller rectangular wire structures around a respective rectangular opening. The upper and lower rim are connected to each other by means of wire legs to form a frusto-pyramidical structure dimensioned to hold and support a chafer with contained food. The wire legs are usually welded to the upper and lower rims at the corners of the structure with the wire legs extending below the lower rim so that they also function as bottom supports to keep the stand level with the ground and to maintain the lower rim at a predetermined height above ground level for placement of chafing fuel heaters for the chafing dish in the stand.
Because numerous chafers are used at occasions, where required, numerous wire chafing stands are also required, with both the chafers and the wire chafing stands being respectively transported and stored and nested together in multiple units. Presently, wire chafing stands, such as those shown and described in the aforementioned patent, permit the stands to be partially nested into one another when stacked i.e., the stands nest, however only to a limited extent. As further described in said patent, the cost of storage and transportation has a direct relationship to the vertical height of a stack of nested wire stands. Accordingly, for wire stands with only limited nesting capability, the transportation cost for transporting such wire stands over long distances becomes a significant factor in its selling price. This, in turn, reduces the ability to compete over large geographical areas where transportation cost and/or storage cost become too large.
In describing the wire stand structure of a chafer in the prior art patent, it was further noted therein that structures which permit nesting of multiple stands to reduce the vertical column height of a stack of nested stands, almost invariably entailed numerous shortcomings. These shortcoming include complicated wire stand designs which otherwise increase the cost of fabrication and cause the stand to be unwieldy, structurally as well as esthetically.
One particular problem in the art is the difficulty in removal of wire stands from one another after nesting. Generally, if the wire stands are tightly nested they tend to wedge into one another and are then difficult to separate. The chafing stands must be readily separable from one another, thereby specifically excluding deep nesting from normal considerations of chafer wire stand construction.
There is therefore a need in the art to provide a wire chafing stand which has improved nesting ability, a decreased storage footprint, and which is simpler to manufacture and less expensive to procure.